Shadestorm

Since there are a few rundowns of what's a "reliable" PvE Kill ratio with stalkers, I figure I'll toss mine in the mix. I'll define "reliable" as what I'm fairly confidant I can take out without using any insps or temp powers from a full HP/END situation with all skills recharged with about a 90% sucess ratio, and without running away to re-hide.

Stalker=L28 Nin/Nin
Pool: Challenge/Intimidate

4 yellow minions
Yellow Lt./boss + 4 white minions
2 yellow Lts
Orange Lt +2 yellow minions
Orange boss + 1 yellow/2 white minions.
Red Lt. + 1 yellow/2 white minions.
Red boss + 1 white minion.
Purple boss in +2 levels range. (Depending on boss)

The exceptions are usually when you've got to deal with mobs that rez (Freakshow, some CoT, Vhazilok) which can get ya killed pretty fast if you don't keep a look out for the extra mob getting up off the ground.

As you can see it's not all that far off from what any other AT could reasonably attempt to solo under the same conditions, in the same level range. So I'd say it feels balanced. After spending some time with my controller and dominator alts, it became fairly obvious that surviving a prolonged firefight is very similar to what a controller/dominator has to do in the same situation. The tradeoff is that my stalker's mez output (intimidate, smoke flash, placate, Soaring dragon) is easily inferior, but his damage is easily superior, as a good build up+AS+Soaring Dragon can nearly, if not totally kill the biggest nastiest mob.

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Nope,

As a Nin/Nin I have no stunning attacks.
I have no immobilizing attacks.
I have no range attacks.
I have a highly resisted damage type.
I have no knockback protection.

I am the weakest stalker. Without hide...I'm the weakest melee AT.

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*signs*

Ever had a tank look at you and tell you "I laugh at lethal."? And literally do it over and over again until you get lucky enough to drop just the right toggles and finally faceplant him?

Let's face facts, stealth/backstab classes are a popular part of nearly every MMO. Heck, Guild Wars is getting an Assasin class, and as a former player I'd have never thought it would happen.

Why? Because it's FUN for crap's sake! Versus any other AT I've played, both PvP and PvE I prefer the stalker. I like the aesthetic. I like the thrill of the quick kill. I even like the frustration when I miscalculate and get whacked utterly. As a Stalker in Siren's call, I spend a lot of time chuckling at the rampant stalker paranoia. There may be all of two stalkers in the zone, yet you'd swear there were twenty. The problem people generally have is overestimating our abilities. They think we can placate at will, they think we can one shot everything, and most of all they think it's easy to land said one shot kill.

The reality? Playing a stalker is the most complex AT you could possibly attempt. You'd think it was the MM, but once you've got a few nice binds set up, playing an MM is no more difficult that playing a decent controller. When you're doing well, you're doing EXTREMELY well. When you're doing poorly, you're dead.

For the people who claim stalkers are overpowered:
Go play a stalker for 30 levels, and get back to me.

Edit: As for the "stalkers ruin PvP" argument... As I understood it PvP was massively unpopular before CoV... Now it's suddenly all the rage. Strange, isn't it?

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It's quite a bit higher than that. IIRC, it's something like 25 or 30%.

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I must just be severely unlucky or something. Thanks for the data.

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The powers that have an increased chance to Crit weren't still allowed for stalkers to be able to " double crit " like you and others can do. They were allowed because without hide, a Stalker has 0% chance to crit when not hidden / placated [ Scrappers, contrarily, always have a certain % chance ].

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Actually, this is incorrect. Stalkers have a chance to crit held and sleeping targets when not hidden (which is why I make a habit of LKing random dominators when a mission takes me a back a zone or two) It's right there in the Assaination auto power long help. Having not personally played a scrapper myself, I'm not sure how it stacks up to scrapper's crit chances, but it feels about 5-10% chance on my first 4 attack powers (my normal chain) Now if only that crit chance worked on targets under fear... *sigh*